Prequel to 'Counting Teardrops' After failing her jonin exams, Tenten's on journey to Suna to train. She had no idea that the journey there would be life altering. When there though, can the girl that plays with knives get tangled up in her trainers web..

"Morning!" Lee chirped, he sat back down at his seat and resumed to wolf away at the piles of croissants and pancakes on his plate.

"Hey" Hinata smiled, she let Naruto feed her a strawberry before pulling away from his gaze. "Good morning" she beamed up at Neji and Tenten, and nodded towards two empty seats opposite her at the dining table. They sat down.

"They don't call me Naruto the great for nothing." Naruto boasted with an immodest shrug. Hinata punched him playfully in the stomach, a broad smile on her face.

"It's a good thing Tenten threw up in your bed then." Lee piped in.

"WHAT? I did not throw up in Hinata's bed. " Tenten exclaimed, "I woke up in Neji's room."

"You slept in Neji's room because you threw up in Hinata's bed. Hinata slept with me in the guest room." Naruto corrected, "You really don't remember anything do you?" he asked amused.

Tenten opened her mouth to reprimand him, then shut her mouth again.

"Good morning Neji sama"mumbled a girl who'd popped up out of nowhere. She was a Hyuuga, definitely as her eyes were milky grey. And a maid, Tenten judged by her plain black robes and scraped back hair. She looked about Hinata's age- one year younger than Tenten.

"Coffee?" the maid asked in a flat voice.Neji nodded silently, not looking away from the pastry he was eating. Tenten narrowed her eyes on him. It wasn't in her place to be bothered, but the way the Hyuuga family worked had just always bothered her.

"Ah! Tenten!" the maid piped up, a beautiful pearly white smile spread across her face. Tenten looked up at her, Neji smirked as an embarrassed little smile crept across Tenten's face. "Would you like juice? Tea? Coffee?" the maid asked.

"Just tea, thanks" Tenten said.

"Right away" the maid said with a flirty wink.

From the corner of her eye Tenten could see Hinata watch the maid with a raised brow. Hinata's gaze moved slowly over the table, then caught Tenten's. Her face softened into a smile. Then rose into alarm.

"Oh yeah!" she exclaimed loudly. "..So did Lee give it to you?" she asked, Tenten and Lee looked at each other with perplexed faces."It did go well right? Well, your both athletic I'm sure it went amazingly." Hinata carried on,"No need to worry about any ...mishaps" she smiled broadly at Tenten and Lee.

Tenten and Lee looked at each other with perplexed faces."WHA-"Lee gasped, "If it was to be anybody, it should be Neji surely!" pointing at Neji who'd just been innocently sipping the froth from his cappuccino.Tenten choked on the pain au chocolat.

"...Well?" Hinata squealed excitedly, flapping her hands in a usual Naruto-mannerism and looking across the table to Tenten with an expectant smile. After receiving another blank stare from Tenten, Hinata shot her lavender eyes at Lee.

A long silent moment passed. "Oh!..Oh yeah!" Lee said, dropping jam and crumbs from his mouth. He retrieved two envelopes from his pocket. One green and the other red.He shoved the green one into Tenten's hand."It's our jonin results!" his voice filled with excitement and, for the few times she'd heard, a quiver of nervousness.

"Oh shit yeah! I completely forgot to get our results today! Tsunade's going to kill me!" Tenten gasped, she flipped over the jade envelope over, her and Lee's names were scrawled in the top right corner, the envelope had the blood-red wax seal meaning it'd come from the Hokage."Thank goodness you kept sober yesterday night."she said to Lee.

"I completely forgot about it too." Lee said with guilt in his voice,

"Then why did you go to Tsunade's office this morning?" Neji asked.

"Oh. Um." Lee gushed. His cheeks blushed, and he fanned himself with the red envelope. Neji snatched the envelope off him and held it above his head, out of Lee's reach.

Naruto sat up and took a long gulp of coffee, "Eh, Gaara sent you a letter?" he murmered squinting up at the royal-blue wax seal.

"It's-It's nice to send and receive hand written letters to associates." Lee said defensively,

"So that's what Gaara told you the cover up is huh?" Naruto said.

"...the illicit love affair is not just a rumour." Neji taunted. A small yelp escaped from Lee's mouth..

"Oh. Biatch." Naruto stage-whispered. The teasing twosome looked at each other, then back at their victim.Neji handed the letter back to Lee and did a small attractive smirk. Naruto further pushed the bromantic scene by ruffling up Lee's bowl cut and giving him a long approving smile.

"...Oh. Kay." Hinata said, "Um. So, you want to open up that letter Tenten?"

"Oh yeah." Tenten smiled, carefully opening up the envelope.

Hey hey Tenten. Hope you had a great birthday! I don't think you'll remember but I saw you at my sake bar, you bought me and Shizune a round, so thanks. You are a frisky little drunk you know!

If your reading this letter, then you were probably too hungover to remember to come to my office this morning.

Anyway, what you really want to know is the result of your jonin exam right?

Well, I know it's a hassle, but I simply could not tell your results over letter, so you must come to my office this afternoon at three.

Tsunade HBIC

peace out xxx

"Oh." Tenten said dejectedly, she put the letter on the table for the others to read. One by one they read with excited faces then finished with frowns.

"Well." Neji said breaking the few moments of silence, "That wasted a minute of my life."

"Shut up." said Tenten, sticking her tongue out at him.

"To Tsunade's we go!" Lee cheered,

"After we visit home." Tenten reminded him,

"After we visit home!" he cheered.

A/N

Thank you for reading and waiting! I have been so busy with school and exams etc etc.

I wrote this chapoter such a long time ago...Honestly, I don't know whether I'm going to continue with this fic anymore, but thought I might as well put it up.

I'm sorry... We'll see though eh? It's just... I'm not feeling so passionate about it anymore... the words aren't flowing like they did for the first chapter of Counting Teardrops I think then the standard started going downhill.

Thank you for reading yet again and I thank you so much for giving the two fics love. I'm sorry that I may not tie up the loose strings. I still really love these fics so I may continue

~dumplingdoo

The author would like to thank you for your continued support. Your review has been posted.